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<h2>Ant Functional Requirements</h2>
<h3>Roles</h3>
<p><b>User: </b>runs Ant with a complete build specification and/or
writes Ant build specifications.</p>
<p><b>Task Developer: </b>writes/modifies Ant tasks.</p>
<p><b>Extensions Developer: </b>develops extensions like a GUI, IDE plugin,
 (scripting extension?)</p>
<p><b>Core Developer: </b>works on the Ant core</p>
<h3>Requirements from the Ant User perspective</h3>
<p>It should be easy to write a build file for small Java programs. It should
 be possible to write a build file set for large Java systems. Maintenance
 of such a set should be easy (e.g. no duplication of information).</p>
<p>Every build process contains dependencies (e.g. item A needs B to be available
 before its own build can start). It should be possible to specify these
 dependencies in a declarative way.</p>
<p>Suppose a working build specification for system A is available. It should
 be possible for system B to declare dependencies to <i>(modules of?)</i> system
 A without touching the build specification of A. Ant should be able to handle
 dependencies between modules which form a DAG.</p>
<p>It should be possible to modify details of the actual build (e.g. classpath,
 used compiler) without the need to change the build specification. This
 feature is needed when starting Ant (e.g. configuration with command line
 parameters) and for a subproject build driven by the build of a dependent
 project.</p>
<p>Often similar items have to be built. Therefore it should be possible
 to provide general <i>(template?)</i> build specifications, and to declare for
 a concrete item that it should be built according to such a general specification.</p>
<p>One result of the build process should be a log which shows what has been done.</p>
<h3>Requirements from the task developer perspective</h3>
<p>A task should not need to know the structure of a build specification.
 It would have to provide an interface (not necessarily in the Java language
 sense) for the Ant core to input the necessary configuration attributes
 and to execute the task). There should be a standard functionality to allow
 a task doing log output.</p>
<p>An interface (again not necessarily in the Java language sense) should
 be provided which allows a task to get <i>(and set?)</i> information about it's
 context in the build process.</p>
<h3>Requirements from the extensions developer perspective</h3>
<p>The Ant core should be independent from a specific representation of the
 build specification. It should be possible to create a specification programmatically
 (thereby allowing the introduction of new representations). The core should
 do no in- or output itself. Build errors should always lead to throwing
 an Exception.</p>
<p>Access to the current state of a build should be available, and its modification
 possible.</p>
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